As the number of state troopers declined in the past six years, there has been a corresponding drop in traffic enforcement that highway safety advocates say puts thousands of drivers in Kansas at risk.

Since 2008, the number of state troopers dropped 16 percent, leaving 409 officers responsible for more than 10,000 miles of Kansas highways.

“We are trying very hard to come up with strategies to address our hiring issues,” said Highway Patrol Maj. John Eichkorn.

He stressed that the trooper positions are not being left open to save money.

Instead, the patrol has seen a steady decline in applicants, from about 1,400 in 1988 to 267 last year. A rigorous screening process winnows the applicant pool to just a fraction of the prospective troopers.

For example, out of the 267 applicants who started the hiring process last year, six graduated from the patrol’s training academy in December. A year earlier, 12 of 239 applicants eventually graduated.

“We are finding fewer and fewer individuals who want to become law enforcement officers,” Eichkorn said.

Eichkorn said the Highway Patrol hired a full-time recruiter to replenish its ranks. He credited that hire with a new pool of 403 applicants.

“The Kansas Highway Patrol isn’t going to convince anybody to be a police officer who doesn’t want to be,” he said. “But for those that do want to be a police officer, we want to be there shoulder-to-shoulder with these other great agencies to say, ‘Here’s what we can offer you.’”

Kansas is not the only state grappling with trooper shortages. Mississippi is running about 140 troopers short of the maximum number allowed by law. Pennsylvania State Police reported having 489 vacancies. Alabama is 452 troopers short of the levels recommended by a recent study.

Pay problem

Part of the problem in Kansas is pay.

A starting Kansas state trooper earns $42,702 a year. After five years, the salary increases to $49,462, where it stops without more funding approved by the Legislature.

Like other classified state employees, troopers are supposed to get a 2.5 percent salary bump each year as part of the state pay plan, but the Legislature hasn’t funded those raises since 2007.

The Legislature approved a 5 percent salary increase for troopers in 2012. The last cost-of-living increase approved before that was in 2008.

Mellick, of the Troopers Association, points to Kansas City, Kan., where salaries are negotiated with the police, as an example of how troopers compare with other police departments.

In Kansas City, Kan., a starting officer is paid $40,417, rising to $62,746 after five years. In Johnson County, starting salaries for sheriff’s deputies range from $38,000 to $44,000 a year, depending on experience. After five years, the salary ranges from $49,000 to $52,000 a year.

A survey conducted last year found that patrol morale was suffering partly because of low pay, according to a report by the Topeka Capital-Journal.

Ernest Garcia, who recently retired as the patrol’s superintendent, told the paper that morale could be improved if the patrol paid salaries comparable to what some local governments pay their police officers.

Garcia recommended that the governor authorize a 10 percent pay raise for uniformed officers, costing about $2.9 million a year. But there are no planned pay increases for the Highway Patrol for the next two fiscal years, beginning July 1.

State Rep. Russ Jennings, R-Lakin, is vice chairman of the House budget committee, which oversees transportation and public safety. Jennings said he was shocked that the Highway Patrol had lost so many troopers.

The pay issue, he said, is not limited to the Highway Patrol. He pointed out that many state employee have gone without raises for years.

“The state is certainly becoming less attractive in terms” of being an employer, he said.

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